I used to have a boss/mentor who happened to become a good friend, who would say under her breath upon seeing a handsome man, "Boy, what I could do to him"....

Well, for some reason, that's what I think to myself when I see a really sexy house. I think to myself (and well, maybe I say it out loud), "Boy, what I could do to that house". I only saw one pic from this renovation and I knew this home fell into that category...I may do a design board just for fun.

The owner of this property was a friend of my Father's when I was a child. I spent many afternoons paddle boating around the pond, and a memorable 4th of July sitting on that dock in the picture below. Ray was a wealthy eccentric with a love of history and children. For my sister and I it was a treat to be able to ramble about this historically accurate town which Ray had wanted to turn into a thriving mercantile-type village. My uncle was married in the chapel there and I have so many special memories tied to this tiny little village nestled in the CT River town of East Haddam.

One Christmas Eve, Ray and his wife, Carol (who was one of my Gram's closest friends) piled us into their Suburban and took us back into the woods behind the village to see a barn that they were renovating. We saw the barn along with it's detailed woodwork, but we also had the pleasure and sheer delight of "stumbling" on Santa's Reindeer. You see, Ray had set up a sort of deer sanctuary on his property that backed along the Salmon River and even went to the lengths of having Christmas Music playing on speakers in the areas where the deer congregated. As a young girl this was pure magic. Did I say he was eccentric? Yeah, well, in the most wonderful sort of way someone can be eccentric. At least to me, he was.

The last time I saw Mr. Schmitt I was working in my first job, feeling all grown up at the ripe age of 13, in a shop in my home town. I had been hired to wrap Christmas Gifts for the Season and make up gift baskets for customers. One day, Mr. Schmitt came in and purchased like half of the store. That meant a lot of wrapping for me. As I was in the back room sort of freaking out and trying to make each gift perfect, he came back and said, "You're a Sage girl, aren't you?" (Sage being my maiden name). I responded, "Yes, Sir". He then said a few niceties and was on his way. That day as I was about to leave work for the day, the owner of the store handed me a card. It was from Mr. Schmitt. It said, "Thank you for paying attention to all of the details. That is what makes something special in life. The details".

He tipped me $100.

It was an enormous amount of money to me. It was more than I would have made in a month of Saturdays working at my job at Wellstone Farms wrapping Crabtree and Evelyn soaps and chotchkies, let me tell you.

As I see that his life's passion is on the Auction block, all I can pray for is that someone who loves the details, someone who will honor Ray's dream will purchase Johnsonville and be able to make it a bustling place for others to come to love. Someplace special.